Tuesday, October 25, 2011

Green Technology : Energy-Savings Techniques

Saving Money by Reducing Energy Consumption

I was just reading the Computerworldtop 12 green-IT organizations list for 2011, and after many pages of reading, it was clear that certain energy-savings strategies were quite common across the range of companies featured in the article. I am all for saving energy, as this not only reduces the carbon-footprint of an organization, but it also saves money!

Some of the techniques noted should spur ideas about how you and your technology organization can save money by focusing on being "green". Here is a summary of how the top-12 companies made substantial strides in reducing their energy consumption through energy-savings initiatives that led to real and measurable financial cost savings too:

Virtualization: this is a significant savings opportunity for many of the companies featured in the roundup of green IT organizations. Virtualization is moving beyond server and network virtualization and into the virtualization of desktops also, for some of these companies. The ultimate objective of this push into virtualization is to consolidate (computing) workloads onto as few machines as possible and achieve very high physical-machine utilization rates.

Allstate Insurance was featured for its ability to reduce its total computing server and device count by 3,000 units while realizing a cumulative energy-reduction of nearly 40% in the past several years. NBC Universal virtualized 60% of their physical servers and shut down 2,000 physical machines. Northrop Grumman posted substantial energy savings through widespread virtualization also, and they are considering thin-client desktops for further savings. Citigroup has gone as far as to require all new servers be virtual, unless physical servers are justified; this has reduced their power and cooling requirements by 73%.

Cooling system efficiency: modern data centers pack incredible amounts of computing power into confined areas, and as such they require substantial cooling systems (i.e., air-condition). Kaiser Permanente was a focus company in this area, as they achieved energy-consumption savings across their three data centers that are nothing short of incredible, "cutting an eye-popping 7.2 million kilowatt-hours of power from overall data center operations [this year] -- and over $770,000 from power budgets."

How did they do it? They focused on everything from sealing up air leaks (which provided the biggest win) and a sophisticated real-time monitoring system for measuring cooling system efficiency. They were able to reduce cold-spots in the data center (which are signs of inefficiency) and avoid overprovisioning power distribution and cooling infrastructure in general. NBC Universal was also mentioned for having implemented similar smart power distribution units and rack-level environmental and power metering sensors, allowing them to increase rack densities by as much as 200%.

Raising ambient temperature (in the data center): the IT group at KPMG was featured for its efforts, which included "raising the ambient temperature in the data center to improve efficiency by more than 5%, raising the temperature of the water in the cooling tower to improve efficiency by 5%". Raytheon was also featured for how IT cut energy use in each telecommunications closet by 30% when it raised the temperature by 10 degrees Fahrenheit to 75 degrees

One related news bit I did not see mentioned in this Computerworld article was how Dell has recently announced that some of their servers (currently the R610 1U and R710 2U varieties) are capable of running at what is essentially typical outdoor-ambient-air-temperatures (in nearly all of the USA, and nearly all year round).

These run-hot-capable Dell products (and Dell, the company and the stock: NASDAQ:DELL) are worth watching, as the energy-savings implications are huge for these high-operating-temperature Dell servers. There are also Dell storage arrays, switches, and power-distribution units that are certified to run hot. I expect more computers (especially servers) will end up being certified to run hot like this, which could vastly reduce cooling costs for IT facilities as ambient air temperatures could approach outdoor levels (as such, lower cost air-movement by way of fans vs. chillers could perhaps become the norm for much of any year).

Blade-Server technology: KPMG was again featured for its migration to blade server technology, with "the average blade server consuming about 50% less power than a comparably configured rack-mounted server". Other firms were mentioned for their push to increase rack computing densities through such means.

Data-Compression and storage de-duplication to reduce physical hardware required to house company data. The finance firm State Street was noted for its efforts in this area where they reduced storage use by between 40% and 50%. This should lead to about a similar percentage savings on both power and equipment costs related to storage.

Private Cloud Computing and High-Performance-Computing (HPC) Clusters were mentioned by some of the top-12 energy-saving firms. "Baker Hughes created a high-performance computing (HPC) cluster that incorporates wake-on-LAN technology. In this environment, machines are turned on -- or "woken up" -- via a network message, and the company can wake up machines for use in the HPC cluster as needed. This setup uses 40% less energy than a dedicated HPC pool."

Solar Panels have been installed by some of these firms (KPMG), and surely other type of alternative-energy will become more common in data-center planning in the future. I didn't see any mention of things like backup power based on modern fuel-cell technology or micro-turbines and such, but I would expect that some of this is in play for various firms.

Telepresence to reduce travel. Various firms, including KPMG and Allstate, were mentioned for taking steps to reduce employee travel, not just locally, but nationwide inter-office travel as well. Technology for streaming video and web-conferencing are employed to make this possible.

To me, it seems incredibly obvious that one of the largest "green" moves any firm can make is to enable workers to work from home whenever possible. Though, simply put, I do believe that many workers are just utterly incapable of managing their time and remaining focused while working at home as they let all the distractions of home interfere; this explains why, with all this modern technology that would make a vast number of jobs possible from home, there still is not widespread work-from-home opportunity. It will probably require $10/gallon gasoline to make a substantial change in this area.

Tuesday, October 18, 2011

FireFox not firing SVG onload event

(Windows) Shortcut handling to blame...

I do a fair amount of work with SVG (Scalable Vector Graphics) images / files that contain embedded JavaScript for various event-driven interactive-SVG components. The onload() event, within SVG files, is something I regularly use too. Today I ran into a strange "feature" or "bug" that shows up in Firefox but not in the Google Chrome / Chromium browser — related to this onload event in an SVG document.

I use Chrome as my default browser, especially because I like the included Developer tools a lot, so most initial testing of my web-page HTML, SVG, and JScript code takes place in Chrome before I move onto testing in other browsers (like FireFox). I have been working on my custom SVG RAD Components (tis' what I currently call them), and because I use one particular .SVG file for the main "test rig", I kept a Windows Shortcut on my Windows 7 desktop for a quick reference to that .SVG file. I just click the shortcut to launch my SVG "application" (in Chrome) or drag the shortcut into a Chrome tab, and that works just fine. Ah, but not in FF!

FireFox apparently does not resolve shortcut properly if dragged into browser

Being a creature of habit, when I was ready to test my latest SVG file and Javascript code within Firefox (using version 7 currently), I dragged my Windows shortcut (to my SVG file) onto the FF browser and poof... it seemed to load the SVG file, but my onload() event code simply failed to run. I would have sworn I did this exact same drag-to-load (my SVG) with prior versions of Firefox successfully, but either way, it is not working now.

So, I loaded the page again via drag-and-drop of my Windows-shortcut to my SVG file, but this time with Firebug running (debugger / developer tool). I quickly see that an error is being generated whereby the event-code referenced in the onload() event was shown as "myOnloadFx is not defined" within the onSVGLoad() code in FireFox (evt=SVGLoad). Clearly something strange was going on here, as this code "works" and has worked in Firefox before.

I played around with the code inside the SVG file a bit, and moved the onload() code from the opening SVG tag's onload="myOnloadFx()" to an inline-script (using <script> tags) just before the SVG's closing tag... and, the problem persisted. So, what the heck? After wasting more time on this than I ever should have, I then decided to go to the directory in which the SVG file really existed (vs. using the Windows shortcut to open it), and I dragged the .SVG file onto the Firefox window where it opened fine and ran the onload() event code just as Chrome did. So, the shortcut-dereferencing/resolution is apparently to blame.

FireFox : want your SVG Javascript onload to fire? Do not open the SVG by dragging a shortcut onto FF

Now I know. Note: the code executed in my onload() event was in an external Javascript file that is "included" in the SVG by way of code like this: <script type="text/javascript" xlink:href="myExternalSVGcode.js"/>

Firefox is not properly converting, storing, and subsequently referencing the proper file-locations for included-code like this, but is instead looking in the directory where the shortcut appears (in my case, the desktop). I confirmed this to be the problem simply by moving a copy of the Javascript (referenced) file onto the desktop along with the Shortcut (.lnk) and voila! It "fixed" the issue. UNREAL.

I have not tested other types of scenarios where this could be a problem, and it is unlikely most people will ever encounter this unless they do software development (and perhaps even just SVG/Javascript with included external javascript files). But, just in case, I figured I would post my notes here for anyone else that may encounter this weird onload behavior in Firefox.

Friday, October 14, 2011

Delphi XE2 : Reviewers / Users Not Pleased

UPDATE: Delphi XE3 release date is here, and I have posted a blog entry about Delphi XE3 New Features; some of the concerns with XE2 / FireMonkey may be resolved with FireMonkey2 / XE3 improvements.

I am a long-term user of the Embarcadero Delphi (formerly Borland, Inprise, and Codegear branded Delphi) RAD (Rapid Application Development) IDE, programming language (which is object-pascal) and VCL (Visual Component Library). Recently I wrote a blog about the Exciting New Features in Embarcadero Delphi XE2 and how much I was looking forward to putting the new FireMonkey components to use in particular. Also, while reading this, keep in mind the fact that (for me) FireMonkey was the one thing that was going to keep me interested in this product for my Windows development platform of choice.

Well, here is the simple fact of the matter: Delphi XE2 / FireMonkey is not ready for prime-time. I have discovered that I am not alone in this opinion, and it appears that Embarcadero has done itself no favor by releasing what many consider an unfinished product. Perhaps I am premature in predicting the final demise of this platform and product, but that is essentially what I am doing: it is over... at least for me. I have used Delphi since version 2.0, going all the way back to 1995, and have been a loyal and avid fan of the development language, IDE, and components. But, I am 99% sure that I am finally calling it quits. Here's why...

Poor and Missing Documentation

I have totally had it with the total CRAP documentation that has come with Delphi since ever since Delphi 7. I have heard promises of improvements for years, and with every small improvement comes a host of missing documentation, bad or missing hyperlinks within the documentation, a poor (and god-awful slow and inefficient) documentation-browsing interface, etc. I long for the old days where I could quickly find all the help I needed and quickly navigate links to related information; those days are long gone.

I just can not take it anymore. It is absolutely inexcusable how pathetic the documentation efforts have been, regardless of which company has owned the rights to Delphi (Borland, Codegear, Embarcadero). Clearly documentation is barely as step above an afterthought for these companies lately as they probably consider it nothing but an "expense"; never mind that this expense is what leads to a product I actually may want to purchase! With all sorts of new features simply nowhere to be found in the documentation, my level of frustration is epic. I have seen as good, or perhaps better, documentation efforts for open-source projects (you know, all those projects that are notoriously lacking documentation).

FireMonkey Bugs, 64-bit bugs, Missing Features

I am not going to re-hash everything that people are experiencing with FireMonkey, as it just furthers my frustrations with this incomplete and buggy product. But, here are some of the things that are worth noting, as pointed out on blogs like Delphi Haven and AnalogMachine:

the omission of Actions and action lists

aside from the very basics, Keyboard handling is crippled

Property/method reference documentation (as I more than hinted at earlier)

Delphi is now looking more and more like a total dead-end for me and certainly will not help my career in the least bit; I am no longer willing to wait for bug-fixes to back their technological improvements that ship without proper testing. And, I do not want to continually pay for the right to deal with such poor quality.

Delphi XE2 Update-1 and Update-2

Embarcadero has released the first couple "updates" (Update 1) for Delphi XE2 and (Update 2) for Delphi XE2 that will supposedly begin the process of correcting some of the deficiencies in this product. But, I am at the point I do not care. Why? Because we all know (based on past behavior) how this will go... they will issue approximately 4 "updates" (i.e., BUG FIXES) to the product during its life-cycle and before Delphi XE3 is released, at which point you then will be forced to PAY AGAIN for what should be free and continued bug-fixes! And, like darn near every single "release notes" published in the past 5 years by these folks, this XE2 Update 2 release-notes document also has screwed up hyperlinks to the supposed "list of fixes". Currently, in the "General" section of this document, see where it says (I cut/pasted this from their site):

Well, guess what folks... the above quoted HTML really links to some OLD Delphi XE Update 1 list of fixes and even points to the German location (/de). THIS IS SO TYPICAL! AGAIN, WHERE IS THE QUALITY-CONTROL!? I really would have liked to see what is truly "fixed" in this XE2 update. Ughghgh! Do we now have to post a QC (Quality Central ... heh, "quality", yeah... ok) entry to report this messed up URL? Again, this is TYPICAL and has been the case for years. I think it is done ON PURPOSE since they really have no list of updates prepared! But, who is dumb enough to keep doing this and keep peeving their customer base?!

This practice of shipping bug-ridden, unfinished software products is common among MANY software firms these days... they put out an unfinished/buggy product, patch it a few times for "free", then force users to purchase yet another "upgrade" to get any future fixes/improvements regardless of how strong the case is that there are still substantial bugs in the product you PAID for! It gets old, and it gets very darn expensive! And, I have seen long-standing substantial bugs go unfixed through multiple major-product-versions/iterations (Delphi and their help-system clearly have had long-standing substantial issues).

Delphi XE2 : the end of the road for my Delphi use

For the reasons laid out already, and for the added fact that there are VERY FEW Delphi Jobs / Contracts available anywhere these days, I am leaning toward totally ditching closed-source development tools like Delphi. There are some great free and open-source products and technologies out that I am going to be evaluating in depth and preparing to move to.

I am likely go to just HTML5 / SVG / JavaScript wherever possible, and I may totally ditch "native Windows applications" except for those situations where I absolutely require the performance and sophistication I can only achieve with compiled code. I have prior versions of Delphi that I will continue to use to support some of the systems I have written for my own use of course, but I also plan to begin the inevitable migration to other technologies. I am not looking forward to migrating my systems include lots of SQL-Server interaction (using VCL dbExpress or ADO components), but such is.

Although I believe Delphi has provided a super-productive development environment and language for developing Windows applications over the years, I also see the writing on the wall: Delphi is a niche tool whose niche continues to shrink as people move to web-based everything. And, Embarcadero is not helping Delphi's cause when they release buggy unfinished software with equally pathetic documentation. Perhaps I will again assess Delphi when the inevitable Delphi XE3 appears on the scene, but for now, I am avoiding any further investment of my time and money into this product.

UPDATE (January 2012) for anyone still interested in Delphi XE2: Embarcadero has released Delphi XE2 Update 3 and has put a new Delphi XE2 ISO Image with Update 3 online. I have not taken time to download and install it, though I did read through the release notes of fixes in Delphi XE2 Update 3, and it appears they are slowly working through the massive pile of major errors and issues. Surely it must be "better" than the initial premature release of XE2. But, I am still a major skeptic and will only consider a hands-on Delphi re-evaluation when Delphi XE3 is released -- and, Embarcadero had better take time to ensure a much higher quality product if they are to convince me to ever use their development tools again.

About Me

I have spent much of my life working with computers, technology, programming, software development, and business consulting. I have a strong attachment to technology and science in general.

My interests and insight go well beyond computers though, as you will soon discover while you peruse my blog entries covering topics from finance to gluten free diets. I have even recently authored a Gluten-Free Dessert Recipes Cookbook of gourmet quality desserts for Celiacs and Wheat-Free / Gluten-Free individuals.

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